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Posts posted by Jim Hargrove
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While being enormously concerned about the color of SR Landesberg's beard, the Harvey & Lee Hit Squad that works so diligently here seems quite content to be totally unconcerned about the following:
1. Credible reports indicating different addresses for the two different Landesbergs. L'eandes/SR Landesberg (the future actor) on 8th St. or McDougal St. and Landes/SH Landesberg, the student, who lived at 66 W. 10th St. We're told, and offered no evidence whatsoever, that Newsday “got a few things wrong” and the NY Times “relied on second hand information.” Two NY newspapers, according to H&L critics, are simply incapable of getting NYC addresses straight.
2. When WMCA's Barry Gray called the FBI at 1:30 AM on 11/23/63, he said he knew L'eandes (SR Landesberg, the future actor) and had interviewed him two years earlier. But Gray did not know Rizzuto (SH Landesberg, the student) when he first met him an hour and a half or so later.
3. The Hit Squad totally ignores the fact that Dallas journalist Earl Golz said that he had seen a televised interview with the SR Landesberg (the actor) from the 1990s when Landesberg said he was “sorry he ever got mixed up with Oswald”
4. Perhaps the Hit Squad can do some actual research based on documents NOT in the John Armstrong Collection at Baylor University. Perhaps they can produce an FBI report, or any evidence at all, showing agents actually bothered to ask Al Fowler to identify L'eandes/SR Landesberg (the actor), or interview ANY of the Village Voice reporters who met L'eandes (the actor), or speak to any of the nine different people identified, with addresses for each, by Rizutto/SH Landesberg (the student), who Rizutto said knew L'eandes (the actor), including the actor's former roommate, Michael Dunn, who lived at 169 East 49th St. in apt. 5C.
5. The H&L Hit Squad is totally unconcerned that, when the FBI attempted to locate a man named “Regan” who Rizzuto (the student) said paid L'eander (the actor), they bothered to travel all the way to the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, forgetting to visit the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, where Rizzuto said Regan lived. This, we're told, is a perfectly understandable mistake.
6. The H&L Hit Squad seems totally unconcerned that all court records and backup records for the arrest and incarceration of Stephen Harris Landesberg (the student) have disappeared. Perhaps members of the Hit Squad can contact the US District Court House for the Southern District of NY at 40 Foley Square in NYC, ptoduce those records, and prove John Armstrong wrong. I won't hold my breath.
This list can, and hopefully soon will be, a whole lot longer, but right now I've got a few other things to do.
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Like with Ralph Yates the intel bastards who were setting up SH Landesberg as a destroyable patsy got carried away and failed to consider he might squeal after realizing the context of the assassination. SHL is kind of like Gary Underhill. SHL is lucky he wasn't killed before he got to the radio station. SHL is kind of like Nagell too. Those who argue CIA was water-tight are ignoring these huge breaches. They do so by carefully stilting their arguments on the dismissive assumption of their denial.FBI was in a bind. The uninvolved members had to respond to SHL normally. They probably figured SHL was doing some kind of covert disinformation op and let him continue up until they got orders to stop him and destroy his story. They probably figured if he was dangerous to intel that intel would have handled it. After they were brought up to speed on how to handle SHL they crushed him and his story by using an insanity method similar to Ralph Yates.Deniers are forced into a position of pure sophistry in order to get around the obvious. They practice the Lone Nut method of demanding perfect purity of evidence, holding the hoops and hurdles higher and higher as their bs gets exposed. You could pop their denial with a pin xxxxx it is so obviously disingenuous. It's clear they aren't answering the points and are trying steer the conversation into their dishonest evasions. They never answer that 10th St is a different address than 8th St. Nor do they make any attempt to answer why FBI didn't just ask Fowler to ID SH Landesberg? Or ask Gray if the two men were different people? Or question the numerous Village Voice reporters who met L'eandes. Or the people at the Circle bar. Or the 9 people and their addresses that Rizutto gave FBI. Their argument method is clearly the form of evasive deniers. Its worst irony is if you do the further rigor they call for it only works in Armstrong's favor. Also - It's goofy to try and ignore that Fowler was recorded reaching out to FBI at the time. Ignoring this and trying to say Fowler talked to Sanders years later is a self-destruction of credibility and giving away of personal dishonesty.I'm not sure the photo FBI was showing around didn't have a beard. Deniers enjoy the advantage of hiding behind obvious FBI deception and hiding of evidence while pretending everything is normal. They operate on a purely dishonest assumption that FBI was perfectly validated in this deception because SH Landesberg was a nut and fraud just like FBI claimed so they don't have to answer the rest. The inherent dishonesty of that approach should be obvious to most honest people.I'd also question the doubt over Barry Gray saying L'eandes and Rizzuto were 2 different people. I think there might be a credible FBI record on that that the deniers are gambling H&L backers won't be able to produce. That's just a straight-out and direct dishonesty.--Posted here with permission of Albert Doyle, who posted the above in another forum.
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More questions for the Armstrong supporters:
In his new article, Armstrong has the following timeline for the FBI/Gray/Rizzuto meetings:
8:30 pm (11-22) Rizzuto calls Gray who invites him to the station for an interview.
1:30 am Gray calls the FBI and tells them Rizzuto is coming.
3:00 am Gray interviews Rizzuto on the air while the FBI agents listen.
23rd The FBI interviews Rizzuto and he tells them his now well known story.
My questions:
What are the sources for these statements?
Since when does the FBI let someone else handle their interview duties?
Where does it say that Gray interviewed both L'Eandes and Rizzuto?
Please do your own research, Tracy. John has made this work easy for you by posting all his documents at Baylor. When you have your rebuttal piece ready, publish it! I'll at least try to get John to read it.
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Posted by Albert Doyle on another forum:
==================== QUOTE ON =====================
Jim,
The deniers are desperate on the Landesberg issue.
1) SHL lived at 66 W 10th. L'eandes lived on 8th St or Macdougal. Those are 2 different places for 2 different people.
2) FBI could have just shown the photo of L'eandes to Fowler and asked him if it was SHL? They could also have brought Fowler in to their office to meet SHL and ask if this was the same person. They could have just looked themselves and compared. The deniers have no problem with the fact they didn't. They are obviously aware of this and desperate since they are now trying to discredit Fowler by calling him a heroin addict (As if that would have anything to do with a simple ID of L'eandes)
3) Barry Gray specifically told FBI that Rizzuto and L'eandes were definitely two different people. I guess he was a heroin addict too? The deniers ignore this.
4) SR Landesberg specifically said I wish I never got involved with Oswald. The deniers are ignoring this too.
5) The trick of these craven deniers is to pretend FBI is an honest truth-seeking boy scout-like institution that reports honestly and wasn't complicit in covering-up a deep CIA doubles program linked to the assassination. Not to mention the need to see themselves as honest critics with sound motives who are only out to vet the evidence. These deniers are basically saying FBI had no agenda and you can trust them and their investigation into Landesberg. What these crass deniers are doing is asking you to focus on the red beard while they ignore serious evidence they haven't yet answered.
There's probably some others that I missed.
We don't need the red beard. If that's all they have they are grasping at whiskers.
========================== QUOTE OFF ===================== -
From Joachim Joesten, THE CASE AGAINST J. EDGAR HOOVER...:I have always considered this little-known case as highly characteristic of the
suppression technique employed by the FBI in its cover-up of the true facts of
the Kennedy assassination and have given a brief account of it in my first
book, Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy?In the belief that someday a decent government in Washington will want to take
a close look at all of the sinister goings-on surrounding the murder of
President Kennedy, I now set down for the record all the information I have
about the case -- which is not an awful lot, for all my efforts to establish
contact with Landesberg have failed. I would not be surprised to learn that he
has long been dead.On Nov. 30, 1963, the Long Island newspaper Newsday ran a story entitled, "FBI
Searches the Village for Pal of Oswald's" which began with these words:"A Mississippi segregationist, reported to be an ex-Marine buddy of Lee H.
Oswald, President Kennedy's assassin, was hunted last night by FBI agents in
Greenwich Village. The agents hope he can fill in many of the still-murky
details surrounding Oswald's life, personality and political activities."Several bars and coffee-houses in the Village that cater to the college crowd
reported that FBI agents had been around and showed a color snapshot of a
dark-haired, red-bearded man in his early or mid-20s. The man was dressed in a
blue coat and wore a red scarf. Villagers said the FBI identified the man in
the snapshot as Stephen L'eandes and that he was described by agents as being
fond of creating disturbances during meetings of liberal groups in the Village.
L'eandes, who in no way has been connected with the assassination of the
President last Friday, was reported to be living either on 8th Street or
MacDougal Street in the heart of the Village. The FBI flatly refused to comment
on its search for the man. 'We are conducting an investigation into the
assassination of President Kennedy as ordered by President Johnson,' a
spokesman said."The FBI, it was learned, was led to the Village by another man who was said to
have called several newspapers and radio stations in the city after Oswald's
arrest and own assassination by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub operator. The
man, it is reported, said that he, Oswald and L'eandes were in the Marines
together and that in 1962 Oswald and L'eandes often appeared together at
left-wing rallies to cause a disturbance. Other reports have placed Oswald in
Russia in 1962. This latest report posed another paradox, because Oswald was a
self-described Marxist and pro-Communist while L'eandes is said to be a
hard-core rightist and segregationist."Let me stop here for a moment to say that the seeming contradiction between
reports of Oswald being in Russia in 1962 and at the same time appearing at
rallies in New York exists only on the surface and that the other "paradox" of
Oswald being a self-described Marxist in one place and a hard-core rightist and
segregationist in the other is just as illusory.Actually this episode offers just one more corroboration of a key element in
the Kennedy murder plot which I have discussed at great length in my book,
Oswald: The Truth, namely the existence of a False Oswald who played a
prominent part in the frame-up of the real one. At the time this man engaged in
disturbing left-wing rallies in the Village, of course, the Kennedy murder plot
and the frame-up of Lee Harvey Oswald were still far away in the future and the
man described in this Newsday story as "Oswald" was not yet consciously playing
that role. The confusion arose later because of his evident resemblance to Lee
Harvey, which is documented in detail in my book. There is no doubt in my mind
that the "Oswald" referred to in this story is the same person as the False
Oswald who in November 1963 planted a rich harvest of false clues against Lee
Harvey Oswald and whom I have identified as Larry Crafard, Jack Ruby's handyman
(for further details, see Oswald: The Truth). Reverting now to the Newsday
story, it goes on as follows:"A man by the name of L'eandes made headlines twice in the Village Voice, a
weekly community paper, by allegedly causing disturbances. In Dec. 1961, he
allegedly heckled speakers at a rally called to urge Mark Lane, a Democrat, to
run for Congress. In January 1962, a Voice story reported that a L'eandes was
punched at PS 41 during a meeting called to protest violence to a rabbi in the
Village. L'eandes was quoted as describing himself as 'a former US Marine who
is trying to be heard on vital American issues.' Police of the Charles Street
Station said they knew nothing about L'eandes. It was learned that the FBI had
shown police his picture although police denied this -- apparently at the FBI's
request."Let's recapitulate a few salient points point we proceed with the Landesberg
story.It is December 1961 and a heckler who calls himself Yves L'eandes is making
quite a splash in the Village; he does so again in January 1962 and the
occasion suggests that he approves of violence to rabbis. He is dark-haired,
bearded, and dresses conspicuously in a blue coat and a red scarf. Most
distinctively, he is a Mississippi segregationist.The New York Post, also on Nov. 30, 1963, published a similar story entitled,
"Racist Linked to Lee Oswald Hunted Here," which gave these additional details:". . . The man the FBI is looking for has been described as about 5 foot 10,
slender build, handsome, with brown hair and a large brush-type mustache. He is
said to have once described himself as being a member of the Magnolia Rifles,
reportedly a Mississippi segregationist group. He has been a frequent figure in
the Village during the last two years and has been involved in a number of
brawls over racial issues."Now we turn again to Newsday, issue of Dec. 6, 1963:"A 23-year-old self-styled student of philosophy, accused of hoaxing the FBI
into a massive two-week search for a non-existent Greenwich Village buddy of
President Kennedy's assassin, was arrested yesterday and committed for
psychiatric observation at Bellevue Hospital. FBI agents arrested Stephen
Harris Landesberg yesterday morning at his Greenwich Village apartment,
reported to be at 66 W. 10th St. They accused him of triggering a widespread
FBI manhunt for a Stephen Yves L'Andres,* who supposedly was closely associated
with Lee Harvey Oswald during the assassin's stay in New York in 1962. The FBI
had been led to believe L'Andres could shed important light on the Nov. 22
assassination.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*The name of "L'Andres" appears only in this Newsday story. The New York Times,
in a brief account of the arrest (see following page), referred to the man as
L'eandes, as Newsday itself had done in its [sic] of Nov. 30.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -"An FBI agent said that on the morning of Nov. 23, shortly after Oswald was
officially charged in Dallas, Tex., with Kennedy's murder, Landesberg came to
the bureau's office at 201 E. 69th Street here. 'He identified himself at that
time as James F. Rizzuto,' the agent said. As Rizzuto, the FBI said, Landesberg
spun a cloak and dagger story around the political activities of 'ex-Marine
buddies' Oswald and L'Andres."'Acting on that information, the FBI agent said, 'we initiated a widespread
investigation to try and verify the allegation. On completion of that
investigation today (Thursday), we determined that Landesberg, under the alias
of Rizzuto, had perpetrated a hoax.' He said the FBI was convinced that
L'Andres was Landesberg's own creation."Landesberg identified himself yesterday as a student of philosophy at Columbia
University. However, Columbia University officials said that Landesberg was not
registered as a student, either under his own name or under his alias.
Landesberg was arraigned yesterday before Federal Judge John M. Cannella. The
charge, making false statements to the FBI, is a felony and conviction could
bring five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Landesberg was hold in
$10,000 bail [sic] and he voluntarily agreed to commit himself for psychiatric
observation. The FBI named Landesberg's parents as Mr. and Mrs. George
Landesberg of 111-50 76th Rd., Forest Hills."Finally, here is an item that appeared in the New York Times, also on Dec. 6,
1963:"A 23-year-old man who had led the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a futile
search for a supposed friend of Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested yesterday on a
charge of giving false information. Stephen H. Landesberg of 66 West 10th
Street was later committed by Federal Judge John M. Cannella to Bellevue
Hospital for ten days for psychiatric examination."Landesberg, also known as Stephen Yves L'Eandes and James F. Rizzuto, was
discharged from the Marine Corps after eight months for a physical disability.
His service conduct was officially described as 'bizarre' and 'unusual.'"On Nov. 23, the day after the assassination of President Kennedy, Landesberg
went to the New York office of the FBI. He said his name was Rizzuto and he had
served with Oswald and L'Eandes in the Marines. He said L'Eandes was a paid
agitator. At least once, he said, Oswald photographed a disturbance created by
L'Eandes."The agency began an intensive search for L'Eandes in Greenwich Village only to
discover, it said, that Landesberg, L'Eandes and Rizzuto were the same person."What is one to make of all this?In the first place, it is an established fact that a man who called himself
Yves L'Eandes lived and agitated in the Village in 1961-62. I went to the
office of the Village Voice and checked in their files the two issues referred
to in Newsday of Nov. 30, 1963, and found that they effectively reported the
disturbances created by L'Eandes.The FBI, then, clearly and deliberately lied in alleging that L'Eandes was
Landesberg's "own creation" and was indeed Landesberg himself. Or can the
Bureau explain how come the purported figment of Landesberg's imagination in
November 1963 had happened to get two mentions in a local newspaper almost two
years before the Kennedy assassination?Secondly, the FBI says that Landesberg, when he called at its New York office
on Nov. 23, "identified himself" as James F. Rizzuto. Is it credible that the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, in a matter involving the murder of a
President, should take the word of a stranger who drops in to volunteer
information that he is such-and-such a person, without proper verification? It
is not; in fact it is utterly unbelievable.If Landesberg, in the words of the FBI, "identified" himself as Rizzuto, then
he had papers to prove that he was Rizzuto, that's for sure. But -- how could
he have such papers? The reference in the FBI statement to a "cloak and dagger"
story explains everything. "Cloak and dagger," in modern usage, means just one
thing: undercover work for an intelligence agency.Lee Harvey Oswald was for years an undercover operative for the CIA, as I have
documented in detail in my book, Marina Oswald. He was trained in the Marine
Corps for his assignment to the Soviet Union and it can be taken for granted
that some of his buddies in the Corps were undergoing similar training.
Landesberg, alias Rizzuto, apparently was one of them and if he was in a
position to identify himself as Rizzuto, it was because the CIA had issued to
him identification papers in that name -- just as Oswald used the CIA cover of
Alek J. Hidell and possessed documentary evidence to that effect.In the third place, it is evident that the FBI would not have launched a
massive search, lasting two weeks, for a "non-existent" person without some
pretty solid data to go upon. If Landesberg was an impostor, the FBI, with its
immense facilities for research and verification, would have spotted him as a
phony within hours, if not minutes. It is a certainty, therefore, that the
information which Landesberg had imparted to the FBI was both credible and of
great importance to set in motion the vast sweep through the Village described
in Newsday and the Post.Why then did the FBI suddenly "determine" that the whole thing was a hoax and
that the elusive L'Eandes was none other than Landesberg himself?Again, the answer must be sought in the murky background of the Kennedy
assassination and the heavy involvement of the CIA in this crime. Had the FBI
pursued the lead offered to them by Landesberg, a lead that pointed to
Mississippi segregationists and "Magnolia Riflemen" as well as to the CIA
nucleus in the Marine Corps to which Oswald belonged, it would have gotten into
deep waters indeed. It was so much easier to turn around and arrest the
informant on a charge of hoaxing the FBI.Such a case, however, would be hazardous to present in a court of law and so a
convenient exit was found: a "voluntary" commitment of the alleged offender to
a mental institution. This is indeed the favorite technique of suppression
employed by the masterminds of the Kennedy murder cover-up. It obviates the
need for proving in court what can't be proven. And the only exit from such an
institution is, often enough, to the graveyard.One more observation is in order. Landesberg, judging by his name and also the
photo of him which appeared in the Dec. 6 issue of Newsday, appears to be
Jewish and is clean-shaven. Would he be identical with a racist and
segregationist from Mississippi -- and a bearded one at that? -
From Joachim Joesten, THE CASE AGAINST J. EDGAR HOOVER...:I have always considered this little-known case as highly characteristic of the
suppression technique employed by the FBI in its cover-up of the true facts of
the Kennedy assassination and have given a brief account of it in my first
book, Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy?In the belief that someday a decent government in Washington will want to take
a close look at all of the sinister goings-on surrounding the murder of
President Kennedy, I now set down for the record all the information I have
about the case -- which is not an awful lot, for all my efforts to establish
contact with Landesberg have failed. I would not be surprised to learn that he
has long been dead.On Nov. 30, 1963, the Long Island newspaper Newsday ran a story entitled, "FBI
Searches the Village for Pal of Oswald's" which began with these words:"A Mississippi segregationist, reported to be an ex-Marine buddy of Lee H.
Oswald, President Kennedy's assassin, was hunted last night by FBI agents in
Greenwich Village. The agents hope he can fill in many of the still-murky
details surrounding Oswald's life, personality and political activities."Several bars and coffee-houses in the Village that cater to the college crowd
reported that FBI agents had been around and showed a color snapshot of a
dark-haired, red-bearded man in his early or mid-20s. The man was dressed in a
blue coat and wore a red scarf. Villagers said the FBI identified the man in
the snapshot as Stephen L'eandes and that he was described by agents as being
fond of creating disturbances during meetings of liberal groups in the Village.
L'eandes, who in no way has been connected with the assassination of the
President last Friday, was reported to be living either on 8th Street or
MacDougal Street in the heart of the Village. The FBI flatly refused to comment
on its search for the man. 'We are conducting an investigation into the
assassination of President Kennedy as ordered by President Johnson,' a
spokesman said."The FBI, it was learned, was led to the Village by another man who was said to
have called several newspapers and radio stations in the city after Oswald's
arrest and own assassination by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub operator. The
man, it is reported, said that he, Oswald and L'eandes were in the Marines
together and that in 1962 Oswald and L'eandes often appeared together at
left-wing rallies to cause a disturbance. Other reports have placed Oswald in
Russia in 1962. This latest report posed another paradox, because Oswald was a
self-described Marxist and pro-Communist while L'eandes is said to be a
hard-core rightist and segregationist."Let me stop here for a moment to say that the seeming contradiction between
reports of Oswald being in Russia in 1962 and at the same time appearing at
rallies in New York exists only on the surface and that the other "paradox" of
Oswald being a self-described Marxist in one place and a hard-core rightist and
segregationist in the other is just as illusory.Actually this episode offers just one more corroboration of a key element in
the Kennedy murder plot which I have discussed at great length in my book,
Oswald: The Truth, namely the existence of a False Oswald who played a
prominent part in the frame-up of the real one. At the time this man engaged in
disturbing left-wing rallies in the Village, of course, the Kennedy murder plot
and the frame-up of Lee Harvey Oswald were still far away in the future and the
man described in this Newsday story as "Oswald" was not yet consciously playing
that role. The confusion arose later because of his evident resemblance to Lee
Harvey, which is documented in detail in my book. There is no doubt in my mind
that the "Oswald" referred to in this story is the same person as the False
Oswald who in November 1963 planted a rich harvest of false clues against Lee
Harvey Oswald and whom I have identified as Larry Crafard, Jack Ruby's handyman
(for further details, see Oswald: The Truth). Reverting now to the Newsday
story, it goes on as follows:"A man by the name of L'eandes made headlines twice in the Village Voice, a
weekly community paper, by allegedly causing disturbances. In Dec. 1961, he
allegedly heckled speakers at a rally called to urge Mark Lane, a Democrat, to
run for Congress. In January 1962, a Voice story reported that a L'eandes was
punched at PS 41 during a meeting called to protest violence to a rabbi in the
Village. L'eandes was quoted as describing himself as 'a former US Marine who
is trying to be heard on vital American issues.' Police of the Charles Street
Station said they knew nothing about L'eandes. It was learned that the FBI had
shown police his picture although police denied this -- apparently at the FBI's
request."Let's recapitulate a few salient points point we proceed with the Landesberg
story.It is December 1961 and a heckler who calls himself Yves L'eandes is making
quite a splash in the Village; he does so again in January 1962 and the
occasion suggests that he approves of violence to rabbis. He is dark-haired,
bearded, and dresses conspicuously in a blue coat and a red scarf. Most
distinctively, he is a Mississippi segregationist.The New York Post, also on Nov. 30, 1963, published a similar story entitled,
"Racist Linked to Lee Oswald Hunted Here," which gave these additional details:". . . The man the FBI is looking for has been described as about 5 foot 10,
slender build, handsome, with brown hair and a large brush-type mustache. He is
said to have once described himself as being a member of the Magnolia Rifles,
reportedly a Mississippi segregationist group. He has been a frequent figure in
the Village during the last two years and has been involved in a number of
brawls over racial issues."Now we turn again to Newsday, issue of Dec. 6, 1963:"A 23-year-old self-styled student of philosophy, accused of hoaxing the FBI
into a massive two-week search for a non-existent Greenwich Village buddy of
President Kennedy's assassin, was arrested yesterday and committed for
psychiatric observation at Bellevue Hospital. FBI agents arrested Stephen
Harris Landesberg yesterday morning at his Greenwich Village apartment,
reported to be at 66 W. 10th St. They accused him of triggering a widespread
FBI manhunt for a Stephen Yves L'Andres,* who supposedly was closely associated
with Lee Harvey Oswald during the assassin's stay in New York in 1962. The FBI
had been led to believe L'Andres could shed important light on the Nov. 22
assassination.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*The name of "L'Andres" appears only in this Newsday story. The New York Times,
in a brief account of the arrest (see following page), referred to the man as
L'eandes, as Newsday itself had done in its [sic] of Nov. 30.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -"An FBI agent said that on the morning of Nov. 23, shortly after Oswald was
officially charged in Dallas, Tex., with Kennedy's murder, Landesberg came to
the bureau's office at 201 E. 69th Street here. 'He identified himself at that
time as James F. Rizzuto,' the agent said. As Rizzuto, the FBI said, Landesberg
spun a cloak and dagger story around the political activities of 'ex-Marine
buddies' Oswald and L'Andres."'Acting on that information, the FBI agent said, 'we initiated a widespread
investigation to try and verify the allegation. On completion of that
investigation today (Thursday), we determined that Landesberg, under the alias
of Rizzuto, had perpetrated a hoax.' He said the FBI was convinced that
L'Andres was Landesberg's own creation."Landesberg identified himself yesterday as a student of philosophy at Columbia
University. However, Columbia University officials said that Landesberg was not
registered as a student, either under his own name or under his alias.
Landesberg was arraigned yesterday before Federal Judge John M. Cannella. The
charge, making false statements to the FBI, is a felony and conviction could
bring five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Landesberg was hold in
$10,000 bail [sic] and he voluntarily agreed to commit himself for psychiatric
observation. The FBI named Landesberg's parents as Mr. and Mrs. George
Landesberg of 111-50 76th Rd., Forest Hills."Finally, here is an item that appeared in the New York Times, also on Dec. 6,
1963:"A 23-year-old man who had led the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a futile
search for a supposed friend of Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested yesterday on a
charge of giving false information. Stephen H. Landesberg of 66 West 10th
Street was later committed by Federal Judge John M. Cannella to Bellevue
Hospital for ten days for psychiatric examination."Landesberg, also known as Stephen Yves L'Eandes and James F. Rizzuto, was
discharged from the Marine Corps after eight months for a physical disability.
His service conduct was officially described as 'bizarre' and 'unusual.'"On Nov. 23, the day after the assassination of President Kennedy, Landesberg
went to the New York office of the FBI. He said his name was Rizzuto and he had
served with Oswald and L'Eandes in the Marines. He said L'Eandes was a paid
agitator. At least once, he said, Oswald photographed a disturbance created by
L'Eandes."The agency began an intensive search for L'Eandes in Greenwich Village only to
discover, it said, that Landesberg, L'Eandes and Rizzuto were the same person."What is one to make of all this?In the first place, it is an established fact that a man who called himself
Yves L'Eandes lived and agitated in the Village in 1961-62. I went to the
office of the Village Voice and checked in their files the two issues referred
to in Newsday of Nov. 30, 1963, and found that they effectively reported the
disturbances created by L'Eandes.The FBI, then, clearly and deliberately lied in alleging that L'Eandes was
Landesberg's "own creation" and was indeed Landesberg himself. Or can the
Bureau explain how come the purported figment of Landesberg's imagination in
November 1963 had happened to get two mentions in a local newspaper almost two
years before the Kennedy assassination?Secondly, the FBI says that Landesberg, when he called at its New York office
on Nov. 23, "identified himself" as James F. Rizzuto. Is it credible that the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, in a matter involving the murder of a
President, should take the word of a stranger who drops in to volunteer
information that he is such-and-such a person, without proper verification? It
is not; in fact it is utterly unbelievable.If Landesberg, in the words of the FBI, "identified" himself as Rizzuto, then
he had papers to prove that he was Rizzuto, that's for sure. But -- how could
he have such papers? The reference in the FBI statement to a "cloak and dagger"
story explains everything. "Cloak and dagger," in modern usage, means just one
thing: undercover work for an intelligence agency.Lee Harvey Oswald was for years an undercover operative for the CIA, as I have
documented in detail in my book, Marina Oswald. He was trained in the Marine
Corps for his assignment to the Soviet Union and it can be taken for granted
that some of his buddies in the Corps were undergoing similar training.
Landesberg, alias Rizzuto, apparently was one of them and if he was in a
position to identify himself as Rizzuto, it was because the CIA had issued to
him identification papers in that name -- just as Oswald used the CIA cover of
Alek J. Hidell and possessed documentary evidence to that effect.In the third place, it is evident that the FBI would not have launched a
massive search, lasting two weeks, for a "non-existent" person without some
pretty solid data to go upon. If Landesberg was an impostor, the FBI, with its
immense facilities for research and verification, would have spotted him as a
phony within hours, if not minutes. It is a certainty, therefore, that the
information which Landesberg had imparted to the FBI was both credible and of
great importance to set in motion the vast sweep through the Village described
in Newsday and the Post.Why then did the FBI suddenly "determine" that the whole thing was a hoax and
that the elusive L'Eandes was none other than Landesberg himself?Again, the answer must be sought in the murky background of the Kennedy
assassination and the heavy involvement of the CIA in this crime. Had the FBI
pursued the lead offered to them by Landesberg, a lead that pointed to
Mississippi segregationists and "Magnolia Riflemen" as well as to the CIA
nucleus in the Marine Corps to which Oswald belonged, it would have gotten into
deep waters indeed. It was so much easier to turn around and arrest the
informant on a charge of hoaxing the FBI.Such a case, however, would be hazardous to present in a court of law and so a
convenient exit was found: a "voluntary" commitment of the alleged offender to
a mental institution. This is indeed the favorite technique of suppression
employed by the masterminds of the Kennedy murder cover-up. It obviates the
need for proving in court what can't be proven. And the only exit from such an
institution is, often enough, to the graveyard.One more observation is in order. Landesberg, judging by his name and also the
photo of him which appeared in the Dec. 6 issue of Newsday, appears to be
Jewish and is clean-shaven. Would he be identical with a racist and
segregationist from Mississippi -- and a bearded one at that? -
John Armstrong and Black Op Radio's Len Osanic talked for more than three hours yesterday. David Josephs and I listened in on phone lines and occasionally commented and asked questions. John talked about the evidence for the existence of two children sharing the identity of Lee Harvey Oswald dating back to the early 1950s. His talk followed the development of the two boys through American-born Lee Oswald's service in the Marine Corps and Russian-speaking Harvey Oswald's more irregular Marine service.Len said it could take several months to put together the final production, and he was still debating whether to do it in audio format or as a video production featuring reproductions of documents. A second interview between the two researchers is planned for the relatively near future.John has been interviewed by Len before. From experience, I can say that Len's website must have a sizable audience, because whenever Len puts up a link to harveyandlee.net, we get thousands of new visitors directly from his referral. In terms of their abilities to drive traffic to a site, Black Op Radio and Jim Di's CTKA.net appear to be in a league of their own. Black Op Radio's home page is here:
-
Paul,
Right, Johnson didn't think Khruschev did it, he SAID he thought Castro did it.
During coffee, the talk turned to President Kennedy, and Johnson expressed his belief that the assassination in Dallas had been part of a conspiracy. "I never believed that Oswald acted alone, although I can accept that he pulled the trigger." Johnson said that when he had taken office he found that "we had been operating a damned Murder Inc. in the Caribbean." A year or so before Kennedy's death a CIA-backed assassination team had been picked up in Havana. Johnson speculated that Dallas had been a retaliation for this thwarted attempt, although he couldn't prove it. "After the Warren Commission reported in, I asked Ramsey Clark [then Attorney General] to quietly look into the whole thing. Only two weeks later he reported back that he couldn't find anything new." Disgust tinged Johnson's voice as the conversation came to an end. "I thought I had appointed Tom Clark's son—I was wrong."
-
Paul,
We're in total agreement that "Hoover, Warren, Dulles and LBJ" deep-sixed a real investigation, but I seriously doubt that "riots in American streets" or "stress between the US far left and the US far right" had much to do with the decision. Johnson claimed he thought it was a commie plot and that 40 million Americans could die in "an hour" from World War III. Warren, according to Warren, bought it. Hoover and Dulles may well have been in on the plot in the first place.
To my mind, the real State Secret of the Kennedy assassination was the true biography of "Lee Harvey Oswald...."
AND
...the fact that JFK's foreign policy was simply unacceptable to the military industrial complex.
-
John Armstrong will be interviewed by Len Osanic for Black Ops radio on Sunday, July 5, 2015. I'll have transcripts of the interview available as soon as Len gives me or John the OK to release.
-
Paul Trejo,
You write:
"In my opinion, this agreement is crucial. Whatever other data is accepted or rejected, it is crucial that we find agreement on this point -- that the JFK Kill Team wanted first and foremost for the USA to invade Cuba and kill Fidel Castro."
Paul, you posit the reason JFK was killed. I believe JFK was killed for some other reason; some reason with larger historical consequences, which endures until today. I admit that I may be wrong. One undeniable fact, however, is that a cover-up began very shortly after the assassination; and the cover-up is ongoing. I can't believe the ongoing cover-up has to do with Cuba.
Castro and Cuba were a big distraction in 1963, I agree. Edwin Walker and his friends may have wished dearly for the U.S. to invade Cuba. I agree with you that right-wingers of Walker's persuasion were a significant group in the U.S. in the early 1960s.
Something special happened on the assassination weekend, including Friday the 22nd. Yes, Dallas itself was blamed for the murder, because it was a hot bed of right-wing radicals opposed to JFK. This made a good TV story. What's special, though, is how the U.S.government under the leadership of LBJ hewed to one message. And what's more special is that that message continues to today, July 3, 2015.
You believe the core message was broadcast to prevent civil war. I can't say with certainty you're wrong. I just think LBJ read the cards correctly from his standpoint. And that the cards said, take the deal offered: LHO did it. And LBJ took the deal.
Hi, Jon,
My opinion is that the immediate goal of the assassination was to provoke an invasion of Cuba, but I agree that this analysis does not explain more than a half century of USG cover-ups.
Current payments for assassination disinformationists comes, imho, from a U.S. Intel "sources and methods" protection budget (or racket, depending on your tolerance for bs). Agents of the USG are now, as they were back in the day, reluctant to let us regular folk know that "Intelligence" consists of whole worlds of invented realities, documents fabricated from whole cloth, and universes of bullxxxx.
For just one example, look at the bad press from the last 15 years or so explaining how the FBI lab invented evidence in support of the prosecution in literally thousands of criminal cases. Most bureaucrats will surely agree that a nation-wide consensus that the federal government is corrupt beyond repair is simply intolerable, and so we are blessed to have a small army of federally-paid disinfo agents active everywhere, especially online.
I totally agree, though, with what you wrote here: "I believe JFK was killed for some other reason; some reason with larger historical consequences, which endures until today." In it's largest context the message was quite clear:
YOUR SITUATION IS HOPELESS! OURS IS PERFECT ! ! DON'T TRY TO MESS WITH US ! ! !
-
The Washington Daily News, 2 October 1963, p.32
Editorial: What’s Wrong in South Viet Nam?
It is a brutally messed up state of affairs that our man, Richard Starnes, reports from South Viet Nam in his article on Page 3 today.
And the mess he has found isn’t Viet Namese. It is American, involving bitter strife among U.S. agencies – which may help explain the vast cost and lack of satisfactory progress in this operation to contain communist aggression.
The whole situation, as described by Mr. Starnes, must be shocking to Americans who believe we are engaged in a selfless crusade to protect democracy in this far-off land.
He has been told that:
• The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, frustrating a plan of action he took from Washington.
• Secret agents, or “spooks,” from CIA “have penetrated every branch of the American community in Saigon.” Who are we fighting there anyhow? The communists, or our own people?
• The CIA agents represent a tremendous power and are totally unaccountable to anyone. They dabble and interfere in military operations, to the frustration of our military officials.
The bitterness of other American agencies in Saigon toward the CIA, Starnes found, is “almost unbelievable.”
On the basis of this last statement alone, there is something terribly wrong with our system out there.
Defense Secretary McNamara, just back from an inspection trip to Viet Nam, gave the President a preliminary report on his findings at the White House this morning. Mr. McNamara is a tough man of decisive action. It may be assumed he now is in a position to assess the blame for this quarreling and back-biting inside the American family – whether it falls on the CIA or other agencies which accuse the CIA.
One way or the other, some official heads should roll. -
The Washington Daily News, Wednesday, October 2, 1963, p.3
'SPOOKS' MAKE LIFE MISERABLE FOR AMBASSADOR LODGE
'Arrogant' CIA Disobeys Orders in Viet Nam
By Richard T. Starnes
SAIGON, Oct.2 - The story of the Central Intelligence Agency's role in South Viet Nam is a dismal chronicle of bureaucratic arrogance, obstinate disregard of orders, and unrestrained thirst for power.
Twice the CIA flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, according to a high United States source here.
In one of these instances the CIA frustrated a plan of action Mr. Lodge brought with him from Washington because the agency disagreed with it.
This led to a dramatic confrontation between Mr. Lodge and John Richardson, chief of the huge CIA apparatus here. Mr. Lodge failed to move Mr. Richardson, and the dispute was bucked back to Washington. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and CIA Chief John A. McCone were unable to resolve the conflict, and the matter is now reported to be awaiting settlement by President Kennedy.
It is one of the developments expected to be covered in Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's report to Mr. Kennedy.
Others Critical, Too
Other American agencies here are incredibly bitter about the CIA.
"If the United States ever experiences a 'Seven Days in May' it will come from the CIA, and not from the Pentagon," one U.S. official commented caustically.
("Seven Days in May" is a fictional account of an attempted military coup to take over the U.S. Government.)
CIA "spooks" (a universal term for secret agents here) have penetrated every branch of the American community in Saigon, until non-spook Americans here almost seem to be suffering a CIA psychosis.
An American field officer with a distinguished combat career speaks angrily about "that man at headquarters in Saigon wearing a colonel's uniform." He means the man is a CIA agent, and he can't understand what he is doing at U.S. military headquarters here, unless it is spying on other Americans.
Another American officer, talking about the CIA, acidly commented: "You'd think they'd have learned something from Cuba but apparently they didn't."
Few Know CIA Strength
Few people other than Mr. Richardson and his close aides know the actual CIA strength here, but a widely used figure is 600. Many are clandestine agents known only to a few of their fellow spooks.
Even Mr. Richardson is a man about whom it is difficult to learn much in Saigon. He is said to be a former OSS officer, and to have served with distinction in the CIA in the Philippines.
A surprising number of the spooks are known to be involved in their ghostly trade and some make no secret of it.
"There are a number of spooks in the U.S. Information Service, in the U.S. Operations mission, in every aspect of American official and commercial life here, " one official - presumably a non-spook - said.
"They represent a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone," he added.
Coupled with the ubiquitous secret police of Ngo Dinh Nhu, a surfeit of spooks has given Saigon an oppressive police state atmosphere.
The Nhu-Richardson relationship is a subject of lively speculation. The CIA continues to pay the special forces which conducted brutal raids on Buddhist temples last Aug. 21, altho in fairness it should be pointed out that the CIA is paying these goons for the war against communist guerillas, not Buddhist bonzes (priests).
Hand Over Millions
Nevertheless, on the first of every month, the CIA dutifully hands over a quarter million American dollars to pay these special forces.
Whatever else it buys, it doesn't buy any solid information on what the special forces are up to. The Aug. 21 raids caught top U.S. officials here and in Washington flat-footed.
Nhu ordered the special forces to crush the Buddhist priests, but the CIA wasn't let in on the secret. (Some CIA button men now say they warned their superiors what was coming up, but in any event the warning of harsh repression was never passed to top officials here or in Washington.)
Consequently, Washington reacted unsurely to the crisis. Top officials here and at home were outraged at the news the CIA was paying the temple raiders, but the CIA continued the payments.
It may not be a direct subsidy for a religious war against the country's Buddhist majority, but it comes close to that.
And for every State Department aide here who will tell you, "Dammit, the CIA is supposed to gather information, not make policy, but policy-making is what they're doing here," there are military officers who scream over the way the spooks dabble in military operations.
A Typical Example
For example, highly trained trail watchers are an important part of the effort to end Viet Cong infiltration from across the Laos and Cambodia borders. But if the trailer watchers spot incoming Viet Congs, they report it to the CIA in Saigon, and in the fullness of time, the spooks may tell the military.
One very high American official here, a man who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy, likened the CIA's growth to a malignancy, and added he was not sure even the White House could control it any longer.
Unquestionably Mr. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor both got an earful from people who are beginning to fear the CIA is becoming a Third Force co-equal with President Diem's regime and the U.S. Government - and answerable to neither.
There is naturally the highest interest here as to whether Mr. McNamara will persuade Mr. Kennedy something ought to be done about it. -
Of course not. There had to be a spook looking after Oswald at the Book Depository, though, and if that was Shelly joining all the other spooks at the little spectacle in New Orleans, Shelly could have been the man inside the TSBD.
-
Well, Jim, I like most of that particular passage by John Armstrong there.
I personally find it impossible to believe that any trained and experienced FBI Agent in Dallas would have so little information about the JFK plot that hatched there.
I say this because FBI Agent James Hosty was a regular Bridge partner with Robert Allen Surrey -- sometimes right there in Walker's own Dallas home (which was also the address for Surrey's professional office).
Also, in his 1996 book, Assignment Oswald, James Hosty admitted that his principal assignment for the FBI in Dallas was to monitor the extreme right-wing in Dallas.
I take him at his word.
As you may know, Jim, I believe the extreme right-wing in Dallas murdered JFK. Now, if a trained FBI Agent was given the duty to monitor the Dallas extreme right, that FBI Agent would certainly know about any JFK plot within the Dallas extreme right. I'm saying that if the Dallas extreme right really killed JFK, then Hosty had to know it, and many of the players and many of the details.
If correct, then maybe James Hosty was the FBI Agent who drafted the 4" thick version of the Warren Report that LBJ alone received (cf. Jacques Zwart, 1972).
One can sympathize with Sylvia Meagher's complaint that Hoover was an "accessory after the fact," but ultimately she goes too far, and Hoover might have had good motives (e.g. National Security) for his "Lone Nut" lie.
Yet it seems that John Armstrong jumped to a conclusion from Wisconsin history professor David Wrone's claim that "within an hour" of Oswald's arrest (e.g. 3pm CST) Hoover had already announced his "Lone Nut" theory to officials. That's an overstatement. FBI memos show Hoover called RFK at 3pm CST with information contradicting the Dallas (and CIA) stories that an FPCC Communist had just killed JFK. Hoover told RFK that Oswald "was not a member of the Communist Party," and that Oswald "was not a leader in the FPCC."
This proves that the FBI had a fat file on Lee Harvey Oswald, updated in 1963 for his time in New Orleans with Guy Banister's Fake FPCC.
IMHO, DPD Lt. Jack Revill's report that FBI Agent James Hosty blamed a Communist for murdering JFK is valid evidence that Hosty was close to the JFK Kill-Team. It isn't impossible that James Hosty might have become enthralled by Ex-General Edwin Walker and his John Birch Society speeches. Maybe James Hosty came to agree with the JBS doctrine that JFK was a real-live Communist. If so, then JFK had to go.
Now for your question, Jim, about whether Hoover had foreknowledge of an "Oswald Project" as you called it, or whether Hoover had prior knowledge of the JFK murder.
I think it's a great question.
It's just that the FBI is so well-trained -- and so well-equipped -- and the Cold War was so distressing to so many Americans, practically pushing the public into the arms of the John Birch Society.
An extreme right-wing plot in a town like Dallas in 1963 would necessarily try to engage its local FBI Agent.
Regards,
--Paul Trejo
<edit typos>
Paul,
If hard right Dallas forces were the main instigators of the hit (without substantial USG involvement) how could the perpetrators be sure Federal investigators would be put to sleep for fifty years? I'm sure you'd agree that a genuine national investigation would be relentless and that the plotters would be caught sooner rather than later.
-
DOLLY SHOE incorporated by lawfirm of Uncle of Marguerite Oswald.
============================================================
Marguerites uncle's law partner was a United Fruit lawyer and she got a receptionist job at Standard Fruit pre WW II . Standard Fruit and United Fruit were at loggerheads till 1942. They were still post WWII at loggerheads but to a lesser degree.She may have been a United Fruit spy on Standard Fruit. United Fruit worked with ONI circa WWI ,WWII and possible beyond . The ONI --- United Fruit connection may have been continuous from WWI onward. It could be Marguerite was a ONI asset (told possibly she was working for the State Dept.) (Per Linda Minor ,Marguerite did date a number of Navy men). gaal (PS receptionist "CAN BE" good place for a spy)
This is news to me. Can you provide a source for this? Where was the Standard Fruit office Marguerite worked at located? Would love to see anything more you have on this.
Some of the banking and other stuff you've mentioned is interesting, but falls well short of proof of much, at least in my opinion. Thanks!
-
Trading Places
From Harvey and Lee, pp. 201-202:
Switching identities for the last time
Our analysis of Harvey and Lee during the Taiwan period, even though very
short, is extremely important, because it was in Taiwan that Russian-speaking Harvey
Oswald assumed the identity of New Orleans born Lee Oswald.
The documents and witness testimony published in the Warren Volumes that
placed Harvey Oswald in Taiwan caused a lot of trouble for the HSCA in 1978. So much
trouble, in fact, their only option was to lie.
In 1978 the HSCA had the following information concerning Oswald's departure from Atsugi
on September 14 and his presence in Taiwan thru October 6:
* Marine Corps Unit Diary 151-58 p. 744, which showed that Lee Harvey Oswald and his
unit departed Japan on September 14, 1958 aboard the USS Skagit.
* Photographs of military installations taken by Oswald in Taiwan that were recovered by
the Dallas Police.
* An interview with Lieutenant Charles R. Rhodes who served with Harvey Oswald in
Taiwan.66 Marine Corps Unit Diary 152-58, p. 747, for September 27, 1958, lists
Charles R. Rhodes as "WestPAC (Western Pacific) in the field.
* The November 4, 1959 message from the Chief of Naval Operations to Moscow saying that
Oswald had served in Taiwan.
* Interviews of Oswald by Aline Mosby and Priscilla Johnson in which Oswald said he had
been in Taiwan.
* Marine Corps Diary 158-58, p. 762, for October 6, 1958, that lists Lee H. Oswald's lo-
cation as "Ping Tung (North) Taiwan."
But the HSCA also had Lee Harvey Oswald's Marine Corps medical records, published in
the Warren Volumes, that showed Oswald was treated at the Atsugi station hospital on nu-
merous occasions between September 14 and October 6. They knew these records placed
"Oswald" in two locations at the same time and needed to find a solution for this problem,
but without interviewing former Marines like Lieutenant Charles Rhodes who knew for a fact
that Oswald had been in Taiwan.
The problem was resolved by Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel for the HSCA. Blakey wrote to
Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and asked a very simple question, "During which peri-
ods was Oswald separated from his units overseas because of hospitalization (BLAKEY
ASKED NOTHING ABOUT TAIWAN). "67 58-23 The Department of Defense answered this
question by saying, "Oswald did not sail from Yokosuka, Japan on September 16, 1958. He
remained at NAS (Naval Air Station) Atsugi, as part of the MAG II rear echelon." 68 58-24
The DOD's answer clearly implied that Oswald did not travel to Taiwan, but remained in
Japan. Blakey then allegedly reviewed Oswald's Marine Corps Unit Diaries for MAG II and
allegedly found no reference to Oswald departing from Yokosuka for Taiwan. However, the
Marine Corps Unit Diaries do exist and contain the following notations:
* Marine Corps Diary 151-58, p. 744, for September 14, 1958, reads: "Emb (em-
barked) AKA 1O5 and sailed fr Yokosuku Japan for the South China Sea Area auth
1st MAW ltr 04/303 /lv P16-1 of 29Aug58.
* Marine Corps Diary 158-58, p. 7 62, for October 6, 1958, lists Lee H. Oswald's lo-
cation as "Ping Tung (North) Taiwan."
This means that neither Blakey nor HSCA staff members reviewed the documentation upon
which they based their conclusion. With misleading information from the DOD, and lying
about the contents of the Marine Corps Unit Diaries, Robert Blakey wrote:
"The Department of Defense specifically stated that 'Oswald did not sail from Yokosuka,
Japan on September 16, 1958. He remained aboard NAS Atsugi as part of the MAG-
11 rear echelon.' Accordingly, based upon a direct examination of Oswald's unit diaries,
as well as his own-military records, it does not appear that he had spent any time in
Taiwan. This finding is contrary to that of the Warren Commission that Oswald arrived
with his unit in Taiwan on September 30, 1958, and remained there somewhat less than
a week, but the Commission's analysis apparently was made without access to the unit
diaries of MAG11." 69 58-25
Blakey, now a law professor at Notre Dame, resolved the problem as only a lawyer could--
by combining misleading information with outright lies in order to create the illusion that
Oswald was not in Taiwan!! In the final analysis, there are only two explanations for Blakey's
conduct: either Blakey was incompetent and never read the Diaries or the interview of Lieu-
tenant Rhodes, or he knew about the conflicting records and intentionally sought to avoid the
"Taiwan problem."
After returning to the United States, Harvey Oswald was sent to the Marine base
at Santa Ana, California (MACS 9), while Lee Oswald remained in Japan. While in Cal-
fornia Harvey began preparing for his upcoming "defection" by discussing and support-
ing Cuba, Russia, and communism. He subscribed to Russian language newspapers, lis-
tened to Russian records, spoke in the Russian language, and took a military language
exam in Russian. Harvey had less than a year in which to convince fellow Marines that
his devotion to communism was the reason for his "defection."
-
The Rifle that Should Have Been
Planted on the Sixth Floor
On April 28, 1959 Fidel Castro flew to Houston, Texas in his personal plane to meet with Robert Ray McKeown, his close personal friend who had supplied large quantities of armaments to Castro during the Cuban revolution. Following his arrest and conviction for supplying arms to Castro, McKeown retired from gunrunning and moved to Baycliff, Texas, a suburb of Houston. The small community of Kemah, was adjacent to Baycliff and was where, back in 1957, Jack Ruby stored guns and ammunition for similar activities.
On a Saturday morning (probably August 31, 1963) American-born Lee Oswald and a Cuban man allegedly named “Hernandez” drove a car into McKeown's Baycliff driveway. On the same day, 350 miles east, Russian-speaking Harvey Oswald, with his wife Marina and daughter June, were visiting the Murrets in New Orleans.
Back in Baycliff, the two men soon knocked on Robert McKeown's front door. The American said, "You are McKeown, are you not? I understand that you can supply any amount of arms." McKeown asked for the man's name and he introduced himself as Lee Oswald (not Lee Harvey Oswald). Oswald asked McKeown if he could obtain rifles, and offered to pay him $10,000 for four .300 Savage rifles with scopes. Oswald told McKeown that he needed the rifles for a revolution in San Salvador. Somewhat perplexed, McKeown told Oswald that he could buy the same rifles at Sears & Roebuck for $75 and then asked, "Why come to me?"
McKeown, who was nearing the end of his 5-year probation for running guns to Castro, was leery of Oswald and refused his offer. McKeown told the House Select Committee on Assassinations, "I said, you are not going to get them through me. I did not want anymore part of any kind of rifles. I would not be caught with a rifle. I said, you came to the wrong man, I am not going to get involved, and thank God I did not get them.”
American-born Lee Oswald would soon be appearing all over the Dallas area—at rifle ranges, gun shops, tall buildings, a car dealership--in a now obvious effort to set up Harvey Oswald for the assassination of JFK. Had he succeeded in purchasing weapons from Fidel Castro's personal friend and gunrunner Robert McKeown, can there be any doubt that one of McKeown's .300 Savage rifles with scopes would have been planted on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository?
Warren Commission apologists have claimed that McKeown testified at the HSCA for some sort of personal gain—a book deal or something similar. But the truth is that McKeown tried hard not to testify and steadfastly refused to do so until he was granted immunity. His full testimony was kept secret for many years, but can now be read in full right here:
http://jfkassassination.net/russ/m_j_russ/mckeown.htm
Mr. McKeown's immunity: ORDER CONFERRING IMMUNITY UPON AND COMPELLING TESTIMONY FROM ROBERT RAY McKEOWN
The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations having made written application, pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Sections 6002 and 6005, to in order conferring immunity upon Robert Ray McKeown and compelling him to testify and provide other information before the Subcommittee on the assassination of John F. Kennedy of the Select Committee on Assassinations, and the court finding that all procedures specified by S 6005 have been duly followed, it is hereby, this 28th day of March 1978, ORDERED, that Robert Ray McKeown in accordance with the provisions of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 6002 and 6005, shall not be excused from testifying or providing other information before the Subcommittee on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy of the Select Committee on Assassinations on the grounds that the testimony or other information sought may tend to incriminate him. ORDERED FURTHER, that Robert Ray McKeown appear when subpoenaed by said Subcommittee and testify and provide such other information that is sought with respect to matters under inquiry by said Subcommittee. AND IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that no testimony or other information compelled under this order (or any information directly or indirectly derived from such testimony or other information) maybe used against Robert Ray McKeown in any criminal case, except a prosecution for perjury, giving a false statement or otherwise failing to comply with this ORDER. -
Good quotation, Jim. I would only note that DAG Nick Katzenbach wrote that memo to Bill Moyers three days after the JFK murder, while J. Edgar Hoover decided upon the "Lone Nut" theory of Oswald on the day of the murder itself.
IMHO, Katzenbach in this memo is merely repeating Hoover's program. Here is the "Lone Nut" theory in development.
Regards,
--Paul Trejo
Absolutely!
Immediately after President Kennedy 's assassination the FBI began an in-
vestigation, even though the Dallas Police had sole jurisdiction over the
case. Less than an hour after Oswald's arrest FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
wrote a two page memorandum in which he described Oswald's trips to Russia and Cuba
and his involvement with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.1 Hoover identified Oswald
as the prime suspect and knew the building from which the shots were fired--all within
an hour of Oswald's arrest.
Following the assassination Dallas Police Lt. Jack Revill was walking through
the basement of police headquarters when he was approached by FBI agent James
Hosty. Revill remembered, "Mr. Hasty ran over to me and he says .... 'a Communist
killed President Kennedy .... Lee Oswald killed President Kennedy.' I said, 'Who is Lee
Oswald?' Hosty said, 'He is in our Communist file. We knew he was here in Dallas.'2 I
asked him why he had not told us this, and the best (of) my recollection is that he said
he couldn't." 3
Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry soon appeared on a television broadcast and
made a statement to the effect that agents of the FBI had prior information and knowl-
edge regarding Oswald. When J. Edgar Hoover learned of Curry 's statement he in-
structed senior FBI official C.D. DeLoach to contact the Senior Agent in charge of the
Dallas Office, Gordon Shanklin, and order him to immediately obtain a retraction.4
Shanklin was told that if he did not obtain a retraction, he would be terminated from
the Bureau. Shanklin quickly contacted Curry and obtained a statement that read, "from
his (Curry's) own personal knowledge, the FBI did not have any previous information
regarding Lee Harvey Oswald."
-- The opening words of Harvey and Lee.
And so the question becomes, did Hoover merely have foreknowledge of what let us call the "Oswald Project," or did he have prior knowledge of President Kennedy's assassination. I'm leaning toward the former, but hardly ruling out the latter.
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November 25, 1963MEMORANDUM FOR MR. MOYERSIt is important that all of the facts surrounding President Kennedy's Assassination be made public in a way which will satisfy people in the United States and abroad that all the facts have been told and that a statement to this effect be made now.1. The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that the evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial.2. Speculation about Oswald's motivation ought to be cut off, and we should have some basis for rebutting thought that this was a Communist conspiracy or (as the Iron Curtain press is saying) a right-wing conspiracy to blame it on the Communists. Unfortunately the facts on Oswald seem about too pat-- too obvious (Marxist, Cuba, Russian wife, etc.). The Dallas police have put out statements on the Communist conspiracy theory, and it was they who were in charge when he was shot and thus silenced.3. The matter has been handled thus far with neither dignity nor conviction. Facts have been mixed with rumour and speculation. We can scarcely let the world see us totally in the image of the Dallas police when our President is murdered.I think this objective may be satisfied by making public as soon as possible a complete and thorough FBI report on Oswald and the assassination. This may run into the difficulty of pointing to in- consistencies between this report and statements by Dallas police officials. But the reputation of the Bureau is such that it may do the whole job. The only other step would be the appointment of a Presidential Commission of unimpeachable personnel to review and examine the evidence and announce its conclusions. This has both advantages and disadvantages. It think it can await publication of the FBI report and public reaction to it here and abroad.I think, however, that a statement that all the facts will be made public property in an orderly and responsible way should be made now. We need something to head off public speculation or Congressional hearings of the wrong sort.Nicholas deB. KatzenbachDeputy Attorney General================================================================================Just a day or two later, LBJ would begin talking to prospective Warren Commission members, soon invoking the specter of "40 million Americans dead within an hour" should the assassination be traced to Cuba or the Communist Bloc. The fix was clearly in from that point on, but the exact nature of LBJ's motives for shutting down a real investigation have been hotly debated ever since.
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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
New Orleans, Louisiana
June 19, 1967
ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
DALLAS TEXAS, NOVEMBER 22, 1963
On June 18, 1967, Carlos Quiroga, Cuban exile,
3134 Darby Place, New Orleans, Louisiana, appeared at the
New Orleans Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) and volunteered the following information:
During the past week, Carlos Bringuier, New
Orleans Cuban exile leader and key figure in the assassina-
tion probe of Orleans Parish District Attorney James Garrison
was in Miami, Florida. Where there, he met with Jose Antonio
Lanusa, who was leader of the Delegation of the Cuban Student
Directorate in 1963. Lanusa advised Bringuier that he had
received a telephone call from Alberto Fowler, Cuban exile
and investigator for Garrison, during which Fowler stated
that Garrison will prove that President Kennedy was assassinated
by Cuban exiles and that Carlos Bringuier was aware of Oswald's
purported affiliation with the Central Intelligence Agency.
Fowler also stated that Bringuier and Lee Harvey Oswald had
staged their confrontation on Canal Street, New Orleans in
August, 1963.
Lanusa also advised that he had been previously
contacted (date not indicated) by Mr. Alcock: an investigator
of Garrison. Alcock accused Lanusa of having known about
Oswald's activities prior to the assassination of President
Kennedy. Alcock stated that this information had been
furnished by Claire Booth Luce. Lanusa denied this and stated
that all he knew about Oswald prior to the assassination had
been furnished to him by Carlos Bringuier.
On Thursday, June 15, 1967, Carlos Bringuier
happened to meet Alberto Fowler on Canal Street, New
Orleans. At this point Fowler stated that the investigation
was becoming complicated because Garrison had information
that an identical double of Lee Harvey Oswald existed and
this individual was a “double agent” of the FBI.
Fowler also stated that Garrison will attempt
to make the trial last over a year's period so that further
investigation can be conducted and additional evidence
entered.
This document contains neither recommendations
nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI
and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not
to be distributed outside your agency.
# # # #
Emphasis added. Above document can be seen in its original form at the John Armstrong Collection at Baylor University at this url:
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/po-arm/id/4801/rec/1
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Paul,
I agree 100 percent with your statements, though we may disagree about the closeness of some of the mercenaries you name to American Intel.
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Marita Lorenz also told the HSCA that American-born Lee Oswald was involved with anti-Castro mercenaries in the U.S. while Russian-speaking Harvey Oswald was in the Soviet Union, but, of course, the HSCA was more interested in discrediting her than in following up on her leads:
Mr. Fithian: "Now is it your testimony that the first time you saw Oswald would have been in the camps in the Everglades?"
Marita Lorenz: "The very first time, no. I saw him in the Safehouse and then in the camps."
Mr. Fithian: "And that first meeting at the Safehouse would have been within a year of the Bay of Pigs?"
Marita Lorenz: "I would say 1960."
Mr. Fithian: "It would be some time during 1960?"
Marita Lorenz: "Late 1960."
Mr. Fithian: "All right. Now I want to be sure that I have your dates correct. You said the first meeting of LEE Harvey Oswald, the first time you saw him, was at a Safehouse in Miami in 1960."
Marita Lorenz: "Yes."
Mr. Fithian: "The next time or times that you saw him were during training at a camp in the Everglades, various places in the Everglades, in early 1960, 1961 period?"
Marita Lorenz: "Yes."
Mr. Fithian: "And after that you saw him at the Safehouse the second time?"
Marita Lorenz: "Yes."
Mr. Fithian: "What makes you so sure of the dates. Within a year of the first meeting in the Safehouse and the meeting at the camps in the Everglades, is there anything else you could match that up with?"
Marita Lorenz: "The photographs, the events that took place. the photographs that Alex (Rorke) took. Everywhere we went Alex took pictures."
Mr. Fithian: "This was prior to the Bay of Pigs?"
Marita Lorenz: "Yes, April, 1961, was the Bay of Pigs."
Mr. Fithian: "And you are sure you saw him (Oswald) before April, 1961."
Marita Lorenz: "Yes, because Alex took the pictures."
Mr. Fithian: "And the whole purpose of the training was to somehow participate or help in the Bay of Pigs.
Marita Lorenz: "Yes."
Mr. Fithian: "Did you see Oswald at any time in the intervening two years between early 1961 prior to April of 1961 and the September-October Safehouse meeting in 1963?"
Marita Lorenz: "No, but Frank (Sturgis) kept in touch with me. Alex kept in touch with me."
Mr. Fithian: "Mrs. Lorenz, has your attorney explained what perjury before a congressional committee is all about?"
Marita Lorenz: "That is right, yes."
Mr. Fithian: "In any way do you want to change your testimony on these dates?"
Marita Lorenz: "No, I do not."
Mr. Fithian: "There is adequate documentary evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald did not indeed return from the Soviet Union until June of 1962.
Marita Lorenz: "I don't know about that."
Mr. Fithian: "Therefore you could not have met him at the Safehouse in 1960, you could not have seen him in the Everglades in 1960 and 1961, and you could not have taken a picture in those areas and could not have a picture for the dates of that time."
Marita Lorenz: "No?"
Mr. Fithian: "It is not possible."
Marita Lorenz: "I don't know about that."
Mr. Fithian: "Now can you explain to the committee why you gave us this false information as far as dates?"
Marita Lorenz: "I did not give you false information."
Mr. Fithian: "Mrs. Lorenz, I went over your testimony very carefully a moment ago and you assured me that you met Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the Bay of Pigs."
Marita Lorenz: "I did."
Mr. Fithian: "On two occasions."
Marita Lorenz: "Yes."
Mr. Fithian: "Lee Harvey Oswald was in Russia during that entire period."
Marita Lorenz: "I do not know that. I did not know that. The Lee Harvey Oswald that I met was the same in that picture, the one in the Safehouse. the same one that Frank knows. I do not know where he was according to your information. I do not know. I never read up on anything about these theories that are coming out about him."
Mr. Fithian: "This is not a matter of theory."
Marita Lorenz: "I know I am telling the truth. If you don't want it, that's too bad, you know. I am here to gain nothing, you know. Nothing. Nothing at all. You are trying a homicide investigation that should be solved, you know. Don't dispute me or put me on trial."
Mr. Fithian: "Only if we can have full and truthful testimony."
Marita Lorenz: "You have got it. You have it from me. I don't know about the other people. I have nothing to lose and nothing to hide-nothing.
Mr. Fithian: "And it is your testimony that you are certain that the person you met at the Safehouse and at the camps of the Everglades is the same person that you met in Dallas."
Marita Lorenz: "Yes, it is."
Mr. Fithian: "Do you have any explanation for how we come up with two Lee Harvey Oswalds during this period?"
Marita Lorenz: "I have no explanation. I know the man I met; he was a creep. I didn't like him. I don't have to be here at all. I have nothing to gain.
Mr. Fithian: "Thank you. That is all."CIA asset/photographer Alex Rorke had taken photos of LEE Oswald in Florida (1960-61) while HARVEY Oswald was in the Soviet Union. Rorke died in an airplane crash in Mexico in May 1964, along with Hugh Ward, DeLessups Morrison (former Mayor of New Orleans), his 7-year-old son Christopher, Daleigh Pellegrin and Ovide Cena
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I would certainly agree that as far as the actual Dallas team was concerned, they very much believed/hoped that the attack and the frame that was to follow would provoke
a strike against Castro. I'm not convinced that those further up the chain really believed that would happen or that it was their primary motivation. My view is that they
were acting against JFK as a perceived national security threat.
As to the FBI destroying all real evidence, that's an awfully broad statement - there is actually a lot of evidence in hand pointing towards conspiracy and that didn't get
destroyed, it simply got managed, spun and either obfuscated or diverted by FBI expert testimony. But you might well be talking about a different type of evidence
than I'm thinking of ......I certainly think that items linking Oswald to or showing direct interest in Oswald prior to the assassination by the FBI, CIA and and very possibly
ONI were destroyed but I also think much of that was in local files rather than headquarters files and such soft files can be and are often flushed without headquarters even
knowing it. Since such files have short term retention dates nobody knows the difference anyway.
Hi Larry,
ONI is the only POSSIBLE replacement for CIA I'm willing to consider.... just my opinion, and, apparently, yours.
I'll back up my claim the the FBI destroyed ALL the evidence, at least for two Oswalds and the their intelligence connection, RIGHT HERE:
Harvey and Lee: John Armstrong
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
Wow! "Hargrove said" ... this and "David Josephs said" ... that! This IS research for the ages!!
Be sure to read the lengthy comments by "Buster" at the end before Tracy deletes them. I've taken the liberty of saving "Buster's" comments to my HD in case they should vanish as fast as an honest FBI doc!